Politics

Nigel Dodds accuses Labour of ‘hypocrisy of the highest order’ over Tory-DUP deal

Nigel Dodds delivered a tongue-in-cheek speech heralding the Prime Ministers decision to hold a snap election as a “fantastic piece of political judgement” as far as his party was concerned (Photo: Getty Images)

Outrage from Labour and the SNP over the Conservative’s deal with the DUP is “hypocrisy of the highest order,” the Northern Irish party’s deputy leader Nigel Dodds has said.

The agreement to give Northern Ireland an extra £1 billion in funding, but not increase funding for Scotland and Wales, has been roundly criticised among politicians. Some have labelled it a “grubby” deal while others have called it “cash for votes”.

But Mr Dodds dismissed the comments, saying the DUP had been in similar conversations with Labour and the SNP in the past.

“Someday I’d like to think we might publish all of the correspondence and conversations we had in 2010 with the Labour frontbench, and in 2015 with the Labour frontbench and indeed the SNP as well.

“Someday I’d like to think we might publish all of the correspondence and conversations we had in 2010 with the Labour frontbench, and in 2015 with the Labour frontbench and indeed the SNP as well.”

Nigel Dodds, DUP deputy leader

‘Full outrage’

“Because some of the full outrage that we have heard is hypocrisy of the highest order,” he said, adding that the deal delivered “for all of the people of Northern Ireland”.

After the terms of the deal were announced, Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader said his party would fight to ensure Scotland got “its fair share”.

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, agreed that all four nations in the UK required extra funding.

However, their calls were deemed hypocritical by Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who said: “It’s absurd for the SNP to criticise UK Government spending on top of Barnett in Northern Ireland when the exact same thing happens in Scotland.”

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